Our Present & Future

A brief review of our accomplishments:

• Progress Daily News– We created an on-line periodical, www.progressdaily.com, which covers responsible business, employee ownership, the environment and healthcare, all topics we address in our daily work.

• International Projests – Over the last few years we have worked in 37 states in the US and have focused our international efforts on India and Mexico. In total, these projects will have, by the end of 2016, influenced the lives of more than 1,000,000 employees, readers and entrepreneurs, plus their family members.

• Helping Start and Grow Companies – assisting 38 firms to start up and grow in U.S. inner cities and different parts of India, creating approximately 200 jobs.

• Growing Our Organizations – developing our 13 office non-profit group that implements, mostly through volunteers, much of what we accomplish. The home offices rely on retired senior executives, students and those who have recently graduated, who are often compensated through our reimbursing them for their health care premium payments. We have grown from 27 to 52 active staff members in the last year.

• Helping Students – establishing internships for 29 students, and service opportunities for another 82 from various universities, helping them to learn and grow by writing and working on projects at large and small employers.

• Offering Online Financial Literacy Courses – helping leverage technology to improve financial well-being through ongoing financial literacy training. We have assisted more than 1,000,000 employees and others from over 850 employers and through several newspapers. Working with employers, more than 250,000 employees have completed in excess of 700,000 hours of training. The research shows up to a 70% improvement in financial knowledge, attitudes and behavior – creating fewer late fees paid related to their credit cards, decreased debt, and less stress.

• Training Managers – continuing a process of training managers of employee-owned companies. To date we have helped train over 450 managers in three-day classes.

• Convening Leaders – organizing conferences for 300 participants who are interested in the types of themes we address.

Looking to the next 10 years:

• Our past work and future initiatives will continue to make Progress Through Business and the Center on Business and Poverty leaders in social enterprise. We will increase our publishing of guest editorials in major print and online publications. We will also expand dramatically the reach of our widely-read social enterprise newsletter and we will multiply our international footprint and the influence of Progress Through Business as we start many more companies internationally.

• We have come to believe that our university-based and non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations are two of the best at effectively producing positive change while spending relatively small amounts of resources. For instance, Progress Through Business creates 20 times more value for low-income individuals than is spent on all other parts of the organization combined.